Magikarp Line/RBY
Magikarp can be bought for 500 Pokédollars in the Route 4 (west) Pokémon Center. It's also available in any water and the gym statues (through a glitch) with the Old Rod. In Red and Blue, the Super Rod may give you Magikarp on Route 12, 13, 17, 18, and in Fuchsia. In Yellow, in Fuchsia and the Safari Zone. Gyarados is only available in the wild in Yellow, with the Super Rod in Fuchsia. All glory the Godkarp. Remember how Gyarados was horribly nerfed in generation 2 and 3, with its primary STAB being special (and that 100 going into Special Defense) and the secondary one not existing? Remember Gyarados being used as a Water-type only when there was no better choice? Welcome to the very origin. Where Special Attack and Special Defense are still one thing and Gyarados can be a decent versatile special attacker on top of being an embodiment of brute force. Where Generation 1's wonky mechanics make Gyarados even more of the destroyer of worlds. At least the worlds that don't have too many Electric-types. Those should be avoided in this generation, as Gyarados can't play around with Dig or Earthquake, sadly. Rock moves? I hope you don't think things with those will survive for too long. Give the Karp a chance and it'll annihilate the Indigo Plateau. Important Matchups - Yellow = * Rival (Cerulean City): I assume you evolved your Magikarp beforehand. If yes, the rival here won't be any obstacle regardless of the game. The only thing he can be here is a mild annoyance, with his Sandshrew and Eevee using Sand Attack. * Gym #2 - Misty (Cerulean City, Water-type): Bite through her two starfish and remember to chew thoroughly. * Rival (S.S. Anne): I feel sorry for that guy. Okay, I don't. He'll be sacrificed for the glory of Gyarados. Exactly the same as in Cerulean. Even his Abra having evolved won't save him. * Gym #3 - Lt. Surge (Vermillion City, Electric-type): Don't risk. Seriously. You have a double weakness to Electric. * Rival (Pokemon Tower): Do you fear Fearow? You shouldn't. It won't do much to you. And if you have Thunderbolt, even less. Note that your rival might have a Magnemite. With only Tackle and Sonicboom. Yeah, I laughed too. * Giovanni (Rocket Hideout, Ground-type): You'll be fine against Onix and Rhyhorn for obvious reasons. Persian won't really get to damage you too much. * Gym #4 - Erika (Celadon City, Grass-type): I hope you grabbed the Ice Beam TM. If not, this battle might take a while. Ice Beam should make it a 2HKO-fest. Just be prepared for Erika's plants to try something annoying during that one turn they have, like Wrap, Bind, Sleep Powder, Poison Powder, or (for her ace) Petal Dance which you might want to healstall to be on the safe side. * Gym #5 - Koga (Fuchsia City, Poison-type): Koga here is not a threat. He'll just annoy you with his status ailments and survive longer than he should. You can take him down with a Gyarados, but perhaps a Fire, Flying, or Psychic-type will be more efficient here. * Fighting Dojo (Saffron City, Fighting-type): You'll face no resistance. Have fun. * Rival (Silph Co.): Avoid the Electric-types, wreck everything else. * Giovanni (Silph Co., Ground-type): You'll be fine if you're not reckless. * Gym #6 - Sabrina (Saffron City, Psychic-type): Use your physical attack for massive damage. * Gym #7 - Blaine (Cinnabar Island, Fire-type): Gyarados eats him for breakfast. * Gym #8 - Giovanni (Viridian City, Ground-type): Warning, Nidoking and Nidoqueen have Thunder. If you want a failproof method, use the fact that his Dugtrio can't touch you and set up an X Special and X Speed. The latter to minimize the risk of the Nidoking outspeeding you. Unless you outlevel him by a few. And then, bigger breakfast. * Rival (Route 22, pre-Elite Four): The rival in Yellow has an Electric-type in all variants. Let your Ground-type deal with those. With that out of the way I'll tell you a joke. Rival battles. * Elite Four Lorelei (Indigo Plateau, Ice-type): No problems. And if you're already prepared for the Champion, you'll just plow through her. * Elite Four Bruno (Indigo Plateau, Fighting-type): You'll destroy his Onixes by looking at them funny. The rest won't be dangerous. Thunderpunch Hitmonchan? With base 35 Special against your base 100 Special? * Elite Four Agatha (Indigo Plateau, Poison-type): Still no real challenge. She'll just be annoying with her infinite PP Hypnosis. * Elite Four Lance (Indigo Plateau, Dragon-type): Dragonair has Thunderbolt, Dragonite has Thunder. If you want to use your Gyarados, be sure you can outspeed the Dragonite. And set an X Special while on his own Gyarados. You want to be absolutely sure you can both outspeed and OHKO. If you're not, don't risk it. * Champion Rival (Indigo Plateau): Avoid Magneton/Jolteon, destroy the rest. It's that simple. I'm actually considering taking half of a star from Gyarados' fun factor just because the Champion gets wrecked like that. Just kidding. You've grinded your useless fish 15 levels. You deserve all of this wreckage. * Post-Game: Gyarados is likely one of the very few Pokémon that can handle Mewtwo without needing to cower in fear. Still, that Psychic will hurt. Shoot some physical moves and heal. }} Moves Magikarp starts with its magnificent signature move - Splash, its power beyond any comprehension of the mortals, and because of that, can't really cause them any damage. But in its generosity the great Magikarp will show a bit of its divine glory and learn Tackle at level 15, for everyone to witness. That's all you need. That's why Magikarp doesn't learn any TM moves. In all seriousness now, those two moves will stay with you only until you'll have something to replace them. First thing your Gyarados will get is Bite at level 20. It's a Normal-type move in this generation, don't forget that. But it's still an improvement over Tackle and a good way to show Gyarados' brute strength to the world. Besides, in Gen II and Gen II Bite is Dark-type and therefore special - you'll have to wait until HGSS to use physical Bite once more. At level 25 you'll get Dragon Rage, the only Dragon-type move existing in this gen. In the late game it'll be overshadowed by everything, but at this point it can have its uses. If not in an actual battle, you'll see it being helpful for catching Pokémon. At level 32 you get Leer. If you really like it, you can set up, but why would you need to do that? One Leer and then spamming the same physical move will only outdamage outright spamming the same move on the fourth turn. Do you really expect something surviving your onslaught that long? Me neither. If you want a damage boost (that would get ignored if you scored a crit), X Attack is a better idea. Level 41 grants you Hydro Pump, Gyarados' only natural STAB. The problem with it is simply its low accuracy - 80%. Generation 1's completely broken X Accuracy (makes attacks completely ignore the accuracy formula, like Swift) might be your friend if you want to be sure. At level 52 you get your last level-up move - the mighty Hyper Beam. If you didn't make your Gyarados be the designated Strength carrier, Hyper Beam is actually a great idea. In Generation I, if you defeat something with Hyper Beam, you don't have to recharge. Just shoot until you run out of PP. Or targets. Preferably the latter. Don't get cocky though. If you don't take the opponent down in one hit, you're wide open. If you want to be more careful, do some cherry tapping first. Maybe one Surf will bring your opponent down enough for the Hyper Beam to finish them. TM compatibility in generation 1... Gyarados is one of the Pokémon that simply laugh at the majority and provide a lot of fun with their versatility. If you bought your majestic red fish from its divine envoy on Route 4, you might want to give it Water Gun, obtainable in Mt. Moon, if you decided to evolve it that early. If you're more patient, grab BubbleBeam from Misty - it'll be your main STAB before you get your natural Hydro Pump or Surf, which is more recommended for having more PP, more accuracy, and being necessary to beat the game. That covers your STAB options. Now, to use Gyarados' great physical attack. The best option is Hyper Beam, which you also get naturally. If for some reason you don't like it, you have Strength. Body Slam is not worth it when you have Strength, exactly because of Strength's out of battle usefulness. The recoil moves? Look at Gyarados' attack. Calculate how much damage you'll deal. And then from that, how much recoil you'd receive. Why waste a turn for healing when you can bash things again? Speaking of bashing, Skull Bash should also be avoided. Two turns to deal base 100 damage vs Strength dealing base 80 every turn. And now, the versatility. Does the name BoltBeam ring a bell? Because yes, Gyarados can learn both Thunderbolt and Ice Beam. This is your beastly coverage. Blizzard is a great alternative - it has 90% accuracy in this generation. Crazy. But fun, if you're at the giving end. If you like playing with fire, you might consider Fire Blast, but watch out for its 85% accuracy. Thunder with 70% is not reliable enough. Stick to Thunderbolt. Of course, you can do some stalling with Toxic, Reflect, or Substitute... but why would you want to? Brute force, STAB, coverage, and the region is yours. Recommended moveset: Hyper Beam / Strength, Surf / Hydro Pump, Ice Beam / Blizzard, Thunderbolt / Fire Blast Other Magikarp's stats Gyarados's stats * At what point in the game should I be evolved? Before Misty or somewhere near that point. It will be tough to get your Karp that many levels through switch-grinding, but it's worth it. The sooner you evolve, the sooner you can actually use your Gyarados in battle and it'll get the experience by itself. * How good is the Magikarp line in a Nuzlocke? Gyarados. The most common line in the game. And the absolute destructive power. It's bulky, wrecks stuff, looks cool. Get one today. Magikarp's type matchups: * Weaknesses: Grass, Electric * Resistances: Fire, Water, Ice * Immunities: None * Neutralities: Dragon, Normal, Bug, Fighting, Psychic, Ground, Rock, Poison, Flying, Ghost Gyarados' type matchups: * Weaknesses: Rock, Electric (x4) * Resistances: Fighting, Bug, Fire, Water * Immunities: Ground * Neutralities: Normal, Flying, Poison, Ghost, Grass, Psychic, Ice, Dragon Category:Red/Blue/Yellow Category:List of Evolutionary Lines with Completed Analyses